Michael Porter on competitive strategy reflections and round table discussion

Abstract

In a recent series on “The Business of Excellence”, Thames Television, UK, transmitted a talk by Michael Porter on the competitive strategy of companies. A Round Table of executives with a special interest in the subject was then asked to discuss Porter's ideas. The European Management Journal is pleased to have been given the copyright to edit and publish the talk and the lively and wide-ranging debate which followed. Michael Porter is Professor at Harvard Business School and the foremost authority on competitive strategy. He is author of over thirty articles and six books, including Competitive Strategy and Competitive Advantage. The former is the leading work in the field, having been reprinted fourteen times and translated into nine languages. The Round Table set up to comment on Professor Porter's address included Sir Christopher Hogg, the Chairman of Courtaulds, Trevor Chinn from Lex Service Group which distributes Volvos in the UK and electronic components in the US and Europe, David Sainsbury of the UK's largest grocery chain, and Patricia Grant of Norfrost, who, with her husband, founded a company which makes chest freezers in the north of Scotland. Mrs Grant is also a recent Business Woman of the Year. The programme was introduced and chaired by Ian Hay Davison, advisor, Arthur Andersen and Company, and director. Midland Bank Group plc.